The present invention relates generally to athletic equipment and relates specifically to improvements in a leg stretching apparatus.
Runners, martial arts practitioners, dancers and gymnists require flexibility in the groin and quadricep muscles. One exercise often used to improved the flexibility of these muscles is the spreading apart of one's legs into a so-called "split" position. Here, the individual's torso is either sitting or reclining and the legs are pointing at essentially right angles to the torso and 180 degrees with respect to each other. The flexibility necessary to achieve this position is generally achieved through various stretching exercises.
In a copending patent application, entitled: LEG STRETCHING APPARATUS, filed Mar. 26, 1982, and granted Ser. No. 362,561, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,247 on behalf of the present inventor, discloses a number of prior art devices intended to achieve such flexibility but with various drawbacks associated therewith. In application Ser. No. 362,561, a unique leg stretching apparatus is disclosed which utilizes a crank assembly for providing large-scale stretching movement of the leg supports and a column assembly to provide a minor amount of leg stretching movement to the leg supports in order to achieve the maximum desired stretch without the very real possibility of exceeding the stretch limits, causing pain and injury to the user of the apparatus. Although this device has achieved substantial commercial success and has been marketed worldwide and been critically acclaimed in such publications as "Black Belt", and "Runner's World", there are several minor aspects which could improve the utility of a leg stretching system which have not been heretofore included.
First, it is desirable to be able to stretch only one leg relative to the torso and the other leg. This would be highly desirable in the instance in which one leg has been injured to a minor degree and the individual wishes to maintain a certain level of flexibility during the recuperation period.
A major advantage of the above-referenced application is the ability for the user of the apparatus to have complete confidence in his control of the amount of the stretch, allowing all muscles to be completely relaxed obtaining the best stretching benefit from the machine. During such a stretch, it would be desirable to be able to move the leg supports in the plane of the legs relative to the user's torso. In other words, while maintaining the stretch or the angle between individual leg supports, it would be useful to be able to perform a twisting movement about the torso in order to improve torso flexibility relative to the leg stretch.
Because in the referenced application, the tensioning cables from each disk assembly are wound on a drum assembly which is fixed, there can be no movement of the leg supports unless the crank is operated or the crank assembly is pivotally moved. Furthermore, if one leg support is locked into position, the other leg assembly will also be fixed in that position and the crank operation and crank assembly pivoting movement will be unable to move either leg support. Consequently, the referenced patent application, herein incorporated by reference, cannot provide the above desirable stretching movements, and these are certainly not provided in a suitable manner in the prior art reviewed to date.